Israeli-Palestinian security talks in Cairo aimed at ending the violence in the Palestinian territories and Israel failed, a high-ranking Palestinian official said Monday, blaming Israeli "intransigence."

"The Cairo four-way security talks did not achieve any results because of the intransigence of the Israeli position and their insistence on continuing to keep the blockade on the Palestinian territories and divide them," the official said.

The overnight talks, also attended by the chief of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and Egyptian officials, were designed to halt violence in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Israel.

Meeting at a secret location in Cairo, Palestinian and Israeli security chiefs began talks with Tenet at 7:00 p.m. (1700 GMT) Sunday and ended them at 5:00 a.m. (0300 GMT) Monday, a Palestinian source said.

The Israeli delegation included Shlomo Yanai, a high-ranking army official, and Avraham Dichter, the head of Israel's internal security force Shin Beth.

The Palestinian delegation was headed by intelligence chairman Amin al-Handi, joined by the head of preventive security in Gaza, Mohammed Dahlan, and his counterpart in the West Bank, Jibril Rajub.

The Palestinians and Israelis have contradictory goals for the meeting; the Israelis demand an end to the Intifada, or uprising, that erupted after a controversial Israeli visit to a holy site in east Jerusalem on September 28, while the Palestinians demand Israel stops military action against their people.

Palestinian officials said the head of Egyptian intelligence Omar Seliman was also attending.

Clinton had personally called for this meeting, following talks in Washington last week with Arafat, who agreed to step up efforts to reduce violence "as much as possible" and to resume security cooperation with Israel.

Palestinian officials said the meeting is one of several that have taken place in Egypt since Clinton extracted ceasefire pledges from Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak at Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt in mid-October.

Nearly 370 people, the vast majority Palestinians, have died since the Intifada, or uprising, broke out in the Palestinian territories in late September.

Since the 1998 Wye River accord, the CIA has been working to promote cooperation between Israel and the Palestinians on security issues